Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/76

64 Mr. . Were you here this morning when Mr. Clendenen testified?

Dr. . Yes.

Mr. . Would you care to give us your opinion on his testi- mony, the exhibits he used in relation to the effect of ernue and horror comies upon children and juvenile delinquency ?

Dr. . I think I should precede my remarks by saying that I really cannot pose as an expert in the field of comic books. When I was asked to come down I tried to make that clear.

Perhaps my contribution can be only a very limited one.

I have worked extensively in the psychiatric treatment of juvenile delinquents and in the conrse of that have had some contact with the comic-book situation, but T have made no systematic study of it and cannot testify as an expert, in that sense.

I think that my own general view from my experiences with chil- dren as seen in a comd chnie would lead to the feeling that certainly we cannot look to cone books as being a primary eausative source for juvenile delinquency.

In that sense T would certainly support Mr. Clendenen's view that normal children are not led to crime as we have seen it in the court clinic because of reading comic books.

On the other hand, T certainly do feel that in areas of our city where there are many deteriorating influences at work on children which do end them np in our court, certainty the comic books may be an aiding and abetting influence and may well precipitate some of the concerns which have already been set into motion by other forces,

Also I think T can confirm the fact that many of the children re- ceived in our court clinic are quite preoccupied with the materials of the kinds of comic books that were shown here this morning.

Mr. . Doctor, I have heard. or read, the statement that a child who is emotionally maladjusted, if that is the correct term, is exactly the kind of child who would shun reading a crime or horror comic. Is that true from your experience, or are they attracted to it?

Dr. . I can say that almost without exception most of the children that we do we at the psychiatric services of the court are reading comic books and most of them are comics of this description.

As I said earlier, I have not conducted any systematic study on that matter and this is an impression only.

The. The children that you refer to, Doctor, are all children who are in trouble, are they not?

Dr. . That is right. The children we see at our clinic are children who have already been judged delinquent by the children's court.

Mr. . Doctor, there were two particular stories I wanted to call your attention to that which Mr. Clendenen told this morning.

One I ask him about specifically, the other I did not. One related to the child about to be placed in a foster home whose foster parents turn out to be vampires or something and the child himself turned out to be a werewolf and the other related to the child whose mother was running around and her father was a drunkard and who had killed in one way or another the parents and the boy friend.

Would you be able to tell a little bit about the reaction of a normal or well-adjusted child to those two kinds of stories assuming these stories are typical of the kind the child is reading?